Tyrone farmer talks great eggs and pasture-reared hens

Back at the turn of the Millennium, that doyen of BBC entertainment and culture, Rick Stein embarked on a gastronomic tour of the country with his dog, Chalky.

The show was, ‘Rick Stein’s Food Heroes,’ and our eponymous champion visited a range of food producers and restaurants seeking out the very best of the best – la crème de la crème. If you watched the show back in the day, you might remember that following each visit to a particular place, Rick would assemble the family or team outside the premises for a group photo. The photo worked as a bookend of sorts before he moved on to another purveyor of fine foods.

Fast-forward to today and without a doubt, should Rick Stein’s Food Heroes still be running, Mr Stein would be visiting a rural locale on the outskirts of Fintona – Ballyness Farm. Ballyness is run by another certified food hero, one Philip Marlow, though not the one portrayed by Humphrey Bogart in ‘The Big Sleep.’ This Philip, the modern iteration of a hardboiled hero, is more concerned with rearing hens than solving crimes – although it might yet be argued that what Philip is doing is the same as righting a wrong…

It was a rainy, unkempt morning when myself and our photographer, Davy rocked up to Ballyness Farm to chat to Philip and also meet his wife, Celia and their children.

“It’s such a bad morning but look how happy they are,” Philip smiles as we approach the flock of clucking hens. “Look at the lifestyle these birds have.”

The Fintona man explained that he has been a farmer his whole working life and apart from the 45-acre Ballyness with it’s 300-strong flock of hens as well as the cattle and the pigs, Philip holds down a day job with Strathroy Dairies.

“I’ve been farming all my life but this is my home farm and I’ve always loved it here; it hadn’t been farmed in 20 or 30 years,” he explains.

The year before last, when Philip’s grandmother asked if he’d like to take on Ballyness, he jumped at the chance. However, all overgrown with rushes and weeds, the local farmer didn’t want to resort to pesticides to clear the ground. Instead, he decided to follow a more natural method, one which is conveniently tailor made to rearing hens in the best possible way.

“I’ve been studying this system this past four years,” Philip continues. “Men like Richard Perkins, Joel Saladin – it’s more of an American home-steading system, a caring for the ground and producing your own quality food.

“But I thought that’s all well and good; they’re in a different climate from us. Then I met a fella from Donegal, Cathal Mooney and he is a genius. “I went last year and done a course with him and he talked me through it all. I went at it after that and well, it’s been a steep learning curve.”

To clear the ground of weedy vegetation, Philip first puts his cattle into a field. Then the hens come in.

“The hens follow the cows into a field, three or four days after. Flies lay larva in the cow dung, then the hens will come and scrape the dung, cutting down the fly numbers, with the larvae enhancing the eggs because of there being more natural nutrients and protein.

“And again the hens are scattering the cow manure and fertilising the ground.

“The hens fertilise the grass and put more nitrogen down into the ground, killing the rushes too and helping the grass grow. It’s a bit of a slow process but we’re getting there. Our systems are definitely working. We’ve only had the hens a little over a year but we’ve been trying to manage it like this.”

The secret to happy hens, Philip explains over the course of the next hour, is manifold. Fortunately though, the secret to great eggs is simple: Happy hens.

Having my own hens at home, I know that the difference between real free range eggs and the sort that are laid by hens in cages, is day and night.

However – and though it pains me slightly to say this – I think Philip’s ladies might be laying better eggs than my own. The main difference, I soon discover, is that Philip’s charges have an unlimited access to fresh green grass, as well as all the bug-life that includes. In essence, they are pasture fed

“We actually moved the hens down here this morning and you should have seen them exploring the new ground and the new bit of grass,” Philip says. “They’re mad about new ground. When we open the egg mobile they run out looking for slugs and worms. It’s amazing.

“I’m trying to have everything as natural as possible. I want the hens drinking natural rainwater with no fluoride in it. Commercial units can have 16 hours of daylight or fake light. Our system is as natural as could be. First thing in the morning they’re out and then when they want to lay, they come in themselves and lay. Nothing is forced.”

Philip’s egg mobile (which he built himself from an old caravan chassis) is the fulcrum of the operation. As well as providing the obvious roof for the laying ladies, that same roof catches rain water and channels that into drinkers. A solar panel also provides energy for the automatic doors. However the genius of the egg mobile is what the name suggests, it’s mobile. As such, Philip can tow the hen house to different parts of the farm every few days so that the hens always have that fresh grass and the never-ending supply of mini-beasts.

“Last year we had 200 but this year we went for an extra 100 because we love torture,” Philip smiles.

“I give them apple cider vinegar in the water, finely chopped onions and pumpkin seeds. No medicine. Everything is natural. No antibiotics – they don’t need it. And there’s no build-up of disease or bacteria. We’re moving all the time onto fresh green grass. See that green grass there, that’s the best medicine.”

I had previously heard from another egg enthusiast named Seamus that the taste of Ballyness eggs more than benefits from all this natural exposure.

“I know you have hens at home Michael,” Seamus said. “But you need to taste some of Philip’s they are a different level – and there are loads of double yolkers as well. The taste is something else.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” I told Seamus.

It turns out, not only are Ballyness eggs ‘another level,’ as Seamus had suggested. I went home that day with a full tray and I had them boiled, scrambled, fried, in an omelette and I even made pickled eggs. To an egg, they were… egg-ceptional (I had to have one pun, come on).

And according to the man himself, they are also much more nutritious than non-pasture-raised eggs.

“It’s because of the grass,” Philip explains.

“These pasture-raised eggs have far more nutrients and far more protein – because they’re getting more of both. There is something like three times the amount of omega 3, four times the amount of vitamin A.

“Look at the lifestyle these birds have,” he says again.

“Do you eat eggs?” I ask Philip.

He laughs. “I live on them.”

For more information about Philip’s exceptional eggs, check out Ballyness Farm on Facebook.